Anyone know this guy ?

[Roger Rettig]

Harmless but entertaining! Indeed...

I'd been ignoring this thread - my loss. I haven't enjoyed a topic quite so much in a long while.

Thanks, Steve.

[Roger Rettig]

PS: If Chris Ivey's doing the CA dates, sign me up for his Florida swing.

[James Sission]

I had to take urine test before I got a gig, but fortunately it was for "distance and accuracy."

I put out a candle at 15 feet and got the job. Of course, I was younger and my prostate was in far better shape.

.

LOL

[Steve Spitz]

I posted this initially because I suspected this wasn't the first time this guy had tried this and somebody out there had come across this guy.

Turns out, he's an alleged con man with a rather extensive alleged criminal history. He's served time and has a long rap sheet.

Most likely , he's possibly Out to steal your identity, which is possibly why he's trying to get all your personal info on a contract .

I just didn't want anyone else to fall for this guys act. It wasn't his first time, so it likely won't be his last.

He claimed to be a member of George Jones band, but couldn't get through White Lightning. Nobody from the jones family knew of him.

Every now and then some wanna be with deep pockets buys himself some bandstand time. sad , but this wasn't the case.

[Don R Brown]

Marvin Lee - even that sounds fictitious, like a takeoff on Lee Marvin.

[Charlie McDonald]

The alias is kind of a tipoff, someone bigger than himself.

He may be out to steal one's identity in a different way, not having one of his own.

[Steve Spitz]

Given the nature and length of his alleged criminal history, I'm convinced he was simply fishing for your personal info for reasons of Possible ID theft. The pathetic music angle was the possible con.

I'm guessing That's why he had a contract in hand, and was pressing to get data.

His alleged criminal history has multiple charges of allegedly impersonating others.

[Don R Brown]

What does your band leader have to say NOW?

[Jeff Garden]

Dallas Lee's actual "tour bus":

[chris ivey]

that's funny!!

[Don R Brown]

that's funny!!

Hilarious from the outside. Inside, probably not so much.

[Craig Stock]

I guess we all now know that he did know a bit about stealing

[Steve Spitz]

Craig,
If you look up his rap sheet on mugshots.com. , you'll see he might know about stealing.

Another recollection about that evening, apparently it's a husband and wife team . He had her take multiple phone photos of the band, while he directed her on the camera angles and content of the photos. Lots of people take pics of the band, for whatever reason, we thought nothing of it. Looking back , could they have wanted our video images to add to our data, as part of a possible ID theft scam?

Im thinking they might have also done some homework and chose our band for a reason. We are mostly weekend warriors with professional day gigs . That might equate to a perception of more to possibly steal . Maybe I'm overthinking things , but New Orleans has a lot of music on a given Friday night. Why did he show up at my gig?,

I started this thread because of my suspicions, not knowing of any possible criminal intent. There are enough" wanna be" folks to have written it off as that.

Now that we know who they are, and what they are allegedly attempting to do, I'm out to warn others, so nobody gets burned. I'd love to see this forum contribute to anyone avoiding possible trouble.

[Don R Brown]

Steve, the old saying "If it sounds too good to be true, it probably it!" should be in our minds any time something like that comes along. That said, it sounds like your vigilance and suspicion stopped them before they actually broke the law in this instance.

Just use caution in how you word your statements. Lowlifes have been known to turn around and bring suit for slander, defamation and emotional distress just to try to get some $$$ from anybody they can. A past conviction is a matter of public record, but it would be wise to always include phrases like "may have" or "possibly" when telling of your current experiences.

[Steve Spitz]

Point well taken, thank you.

[Bryan Staddon]

Early 80s had guy come up to me at a gig in colo springs,I was playing guitar and he offered me a job playing with Roy Orbison, luckily I had enough sense to know that Roy probably didn't need to look for a guitar player and I was not worthy to be on a stage with Roy. Anyway he has his rap down, and wanted me to come to Texas and audition well we laughed about it a lot and told the story to every musician in town, couple of years later I'm watching tv and Roy is in the middle of his 80s comeback and who do I see behind Roy, that guy from the gig ,oh well I still made 35 dollars that night.

[Jack Stanton]

Back in the 80's I had both "James Burton" & "Reggie Young" show up (separately) in clubs in I was working in. Some guys will do anything for attention.

[Craig Baker]

That's true, in fact I was playing in a club one night and some guy came in claiming to be Jack Stanton.

Craig

[Willis Vanderberg]

We had a guy walk in one night and ask if he could sing a song with us. The guy did two numbers and wasn't too bad. Later at his table he introduced himself as Tommy Durden. He co wrote Heartbreak Hotel with Mae Boren Axton. So you never know,he was the real deal. Turned out he lived at Houghton Lake Michigan,about sixty miles away.
Stopped in a few times after that and we always enjoyed his songs.
Then there was The guy who called on the phone looking for Nashville talent. He ask me to sing a few bars and announced my voice was just what they were looking for. Could I come to Nashville to cut demo's. I would need to bring about twenty five hundred to get things started......that was the end..

[Willis Vanderberg]

How about this one. Guy calls and said he was coming up from Nashville to record our band for as I recall,The Friday NightFrolic or something like that. Now we are playing in a out of the way club called the Flamingo near Battle Creek Michigan. Well the Guy shows up with a bunch of recording equipment. He introduces himself as Hillous Buttrum. He said he used to play bass for Hank Williams. As it turned out everything he said was true. We did the one hour live recording and it was on one of the Friday night programs on WSM. so one never knows......

[Charlie McDonald]

Eldon Shamblin told the story about the Texas Playboys sitting in a Denny's after performing one night when a bunch of dudes came in
wearing fancy cowboy duds. One of them was talking loud claiming to be Bob Wills, impressing the waitress. I think they all got a good
laugh out of that. Eldon was always smiling anyway, had a good sense of humor. Takes one with all the counterfeits and wannabes.

[Steve Spitz]

The music biz is full of wannabes, desperate to believe they are "part of the scene" , heavy on the self promotion, light on the musicianship. Usually they just want some stage time. Harmless enough, but sometimes unwelcome.

We all have more stories than we can count about all the sad cases that we run into.

As a steel player, I'm getting a lot of " I'm a singer/songwriter, and I'm thinking of adding steel to my latest project".

Usually they flake out, I give them a card and never hear from them , which is fine by me .
Sometime I get a CD, which is often so non-musical, I not interested unless it's exceptionally rewarding.

I recently was asked for a card for some session work which I suspected would never happen. I remember remarking to a Band mate " I think I Should charge one dollar per card. I'd make some money, and not be bothered with the flakes and talentless hacks " everyone found the idea amusing,

This guy was a different animal altogether . A potential criminal predator , whose main objective seemed to be getting our personal info, for possible ID theft. Really sad.

[Lee Dassow]

We had a guy, said he was Merle Haggards brother, used to come in Mattie T's bar, Commack L.I. in 1979, but I forgot his first name. Double pump job! I've heard all the stories. He even wore cowboy boots and a real Stetson hat. We loved listening to his bull/// stories. Filled out the breaks pretending to believe him on those 5 hour
gigs. Tenn.Lee

[Steve Spitz]

It seems like in the arts, and in music specifically , you always find people compelled to tell you how busy, creative, and successful they are, even when it's not true.

Some people just can't say " I'm not reay playing much these days " or " I've never really had steady work"

They have to create a story . It's kind of sad. The self promotion is fatiguing.